Reasons to have (or not to have) Dual Boot Windows & Linux

The operating system is one of the essential parts of the computer, since it is what allows us to interact directly with the hardware and other devices for the computer useful. By default, a computer can only have one operating system running at once on the physical hardware, however, it is possible to have two or more installed and choose what you want to start every time you turn on the computer using a technique known as Dual Boot.
Dual Boot is a technique by which you can install two or more operating systems on one computer and, when turned on, a boot loader will ask which of all installed operating systems want to start. Although initially this is a very striking technique, on several occasions it may be totally unnecessary. Why, then you will analyze the main situations where you do need to have dual boot on the computer and situations in which it is unnecessary.

The situations where you have a Dual Boot on your computer

The first of the situations where it is advisable to have a dual boot system on a computer is for reasons of compatibility. If you use, for example, Windows applications, Linux applications and games, both new and old, you may need both systems themselves:

Windows, allow us to run Windows applications and new games.

Linux, allow us to run Linux applications and older games that no longer work in the new Windows.

If you are programmers or system administrators, you may also need to have on hand both operating systems for several reasons, for example because the programming and compilation is usually much better in Linux systems and, for compatibility reasons, it is often necessary to test the correct operation of applications on multiple operating systems.

Finally, if you want to test the actual performance of different operating systems , and even have the possibility of having an operating system “spare” if our primary system fails, this technique is essential and will allow us not to remain drawn to a virus or a problem in our main system.

NO situations where you have a Dual Boot on your computer

Dual Boot, especially when one system is Windows 10, usually gives enough problems of incompatibility and errors at startup, so I have it ready can take quite some time and cause us many headaches.

If you do not want to have problems when installing and configuring your operating system , or simply do not want to walk with complex configurations (different file formats for our hard drives, BitLocker encryption, etc.) it is advisable to have only one operating system.

Similarly, if the use that you will give our second (either Windows or Linux) operating system will be very simple, it is possible that instead of Dual Boot option that best suits our needs is to build a machine virtual applications like VirtualBox or VMware. In this way, you can have our base operating system installed and running on the hardware and when you need it , start over the virtual system to make use of it as if it were a real system.